108 DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST LINE. 



rendered it evident that no common exertion 

 would be required to get to either of the large 

 rivers, and in the decision to which I now 

 finally came, I considered myself as having 

 merely chosen the lesser evil of the two. 



Still, coasting along the northern shore, and a 

 continuous link of islands to the right, we came 

 to a place distinguished, by the Chipewyan 

 and Yellow Knife Indians, by the emphatic 

 appellation of " The Mountain.'* Here it is 

 their custom to leave their canoes when they 

 go to hunt the rein-deer on the Barren Lands ; 

 and few have much acquaintance with the coun- 

 try beyond it. Three or four of La Prise's 

 crew, influenced by their old habits, could not 

 bring themselves to pass the rock at which they 

 had always landed ; and separated from us here, 

 under the plea of going to join their fami- 

 lies. The Mountain rises gradually from the 

 water's edge into round backed ridges of 

 gneiss, with intervening valleys rather scantily 

 wooded ; and its various summits, consisting of 

 a succession of mounds or elevations of smooth 

 and naked granite, in the form of obtuse cones, 

 rarely attain a greater height than from ten to 

 fourteen hundred feet. The Mountain River 

 is seen near its base, and precipitates itself, in a 

 picturesque fall, over a ledge of craggy rocks, 

 into the lake. Opposite this is the termination 



